Movies
Related: About this forumDon't you think Brad Pitt's is the worst actor ever ??
Yikes...saw the moving 12 Years a Slave the other night.
Brad Pitt's role is very minor in screen time - and he probably doesn't even have 10 lines. You would think he would NAIL a southern accent (although think he says he spent lots of time in Canada and traveled all over). Not sure what his accent is supposed to be. One time he drifts into Southie speak. Bet he got millions for being in this film.
good thing he's good looking
JustAnotherGen
(33,672 posts)Though I really liked his performance in A River Runs Through it and Spy Game.
And what's the common thread with those two movies? Double R Super Star!
Seeing your point though and it drives me crazy when he gets compared to Redford.
Watch the movie Brubaker . . . I think Reford says 8 maybe 10 words the first 26 minutes of the movie and he's on screen pretty much the entire time -but he's telling you everything that's going on in his face, eyes, body . . . Pitt can't do that.
He's not awful - he's just not in that class.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Trajan
(19,089 posts)Inglorius Basterds is one, well acted role ... Benjamin Button is another
I also enjoy many of Tom Cruise's acting roles, much to the chagrin of DU's super duper critic's class ...
I refuse to let internet critics ruin a good movie, on my behalf ...
JustAnotherGen
(33,672 posts)Yeah - he did a stellar job in that.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)in Inglorious Bastards was horrible.
Howler
(4,225 posts)He was excellent in fight club,kalifornia and I think the name of the movie was 12th Monkee! I will google it to make sure! Ahhhh 12 Monkees !
SoonerShankle
(322 posts)True Romance. I chuckle every time I watch that scene.
And people started naming their sons Tristan after Legends of the Fall.
Pitt is Oklahoma born and Missouri raised, so I'm sure he can find a southern accent doable. But I will forever think of him as Rusty Ryan, his Ocean's 11 character, with food in his hand scene after scene.
Howler
(4,225 posts)Me too SoonerShankle! I should probably be embarrassed but I loved Pitt in the movie he played death .it also had Anthony Hopkins in it.... O! I think it was called Joe Black or something like that.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)I've actually enjoyed quite a few of his roles. Snatch, Interview with the Vampire, 12 Monkeys, Seven, even Cool World, he was good in. And Cool World was absolutely terrible.
But... at some point - I think immediately after Troy - he fell into the same trap as Johnny Depp and Bruce Willis; No matter the role or character, he was told, basically, "Just be Brad Pitt." 'Cause really, you know that in a lot of these, he's being cast just so they can have "Brad Pitt" in the credits. Ten lines in Twelve Years a Slave? That's a waste of a casting... but he's in the credits, so he can be on the poster.
No shit, this is the Italian movie poster!
Chiwetel Ejiofor? Who the fuck is Chiwetel Ejiofor?
And then you have something like World War Z. I will leave aside my disappointments with this movie, for they are many and vast... But just think... would you cast Brad Pitt as the lead in a zombie apocalypse movie> Oh lord! it's dumber than Tom Cruise in a Sci-Fi doomsday movie! At least that cast job had the ironic amusement of Scientology to snicker about.
JustAnotherGen
(33,672 posts)Ahhh - yeah for International Distribution they generally will make the lesser known a small piece of the promotions - and the 'big global name' huge.
Sometimes at DU (especially amongst us film lovers - we are the worst) we forget the Hollywood/Movie Industry is HUGE. Billions of dollars at stake in down and dirty pictures domestically and abroad. And since he was a Producer of the film - he would have signed off on that promo to make sure he's getting his ka-ching!
Staph
(6,348 posts)According to IMDB (take this with the usual grain of salt), Pitt could only get large funding for the film if he agreed to play a part.
helenmalone
(4 posts)I agree. Even I liked him in Snatch, Seven and Fight Club.
CrispyQ
(38,330 posts)applegrove
(123,263 posts)Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)applegrove
(123,263 posts)descendants still here. He left the family for a long while to work in the United States. Don't know if he ever came back to Canada.
Pike Bishop
(32 posts)He was excellent in Seven, Kalifornia, Moneyball, and his recent supporting turn in The Counselor. Pitt is a lot like another actor who mostly made it on his looks, Tom Cruise. if you give him the right role, he can shine; if you don't, he fades into the scenery.
DebJ
(7,699 posts)But then again, though I have never been one to be gaga over men in movies,
watching him does seem to fascinate me anyway.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)I've seen worse.
I actually think he's underrated as an actor. He gets a lot of hype because a lot of folks think he's so dreamy (I think he's a decent looking man, but not my type), but I think he's a pretty decent actor.
LawDeeDah
(1,596 posts)He has done a lot of good acting and choosing good films, imo.
Inglorius Bastards I didn't like so much.
Moneyball was pretty good.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)15) The character, on the other hand, that stands out most in Steve McQueens 12 Years a Slave is Bass, played by Brad Pitt. I saw somewhere that Brad Pitt suffers some disease where he cant remember peoples faces and from the way his face looks in 12 Years a Slave (lost, blank, zero) I can totally believe it. Even most of the films most glowing reviews set aside a caveat for the misstep of casting Brad Pitt (one of the films co-producers) as Bass:
The one flaw with Slave comes in the form of Brad Pitts character, Samuel Bass, and you sense screenwriter John Ridley struggling to further the story along with Pitts abolitionist from Canada. While Pitt is fine, his dialogue is stiff, intended to be the bridge for the next development. Fortunately, it doesnt diminish the films overall effect (Randy Myers in the San Jose Mercury News).
16) Okay, Im sure youll be relieved to hear, now, that Im joking about Brad Pitt (Bass) being the most memorable character in a movie made of such an ensemble of skillfully-realized characters who either inflict or endure such horrors and evils. (This is a movie, after all, about Slavery). I mean, cmon, I must be joking. Well, I am not joking. Up to the Pitt debacle 12 Years a Slave had built up quite a bit of gravitas (a kind of dark ice itself) which then gets smashed to pieces by the awkward and laughable Brad Pitt character.
(Pitt is listed as one of the films co-producers and how ironic to see the star of the movie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, quoted as follows: I think the truth is we wouldnt have been able to make this film without Brad Pitt, because of what he brings.)
17) Yes, the Brad Pitt/Bass deal is a complete fiasco. As the movie looks to wrap itself up, looks to move Solomon back to his family up North, any continuity of immersion within the narrative (strained at times anyways) is wrecked by Pitt, like a teddy-bear landmine. And most critics are aware of the Pitt disaster (aware also of the movies problems as a movie) but in an amazing trick of double think (a strange binary) they dont allow any of this to dull the movies Oscar glow at all. (on the contrary, the community of critics as a whole are actively buffing up its Oscar glow).
Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)In even actors currently working, whose names everyone knows, there are plenty. How about Steven Seagal? Kevin Costner? Vin Diesel? Sylvester Stallone? Yahoo Serious? If I know that Adam Sandler is going to be in a movie, I will not waste my time seeing it. Has anyone ever watched Paris Hilton except in the expectation of seeing her naked?
Among classic films, I give you Ray Dennis Steckler, writer, producer, director and star of The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies. Tom Laughlin (for a movie which preaches nonviolence, Billy Jack is a very violent movie). Rod Steiger gave some terrible performances (see his turn in W. C. Fields And Me -- Billy Barty is also pretty bad in that turkey). I shall just mention the names John Agar and Sonny Tufts, and I shall see you nodding in agreement. And, of course, the worst movie actress of all time, Pia Zadora.
That just scratches the surface.
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)And that's fine. Some movie stars can bring just as much to the table and drive a film as a good working actor can.
Blue_Adept
(6,437 posts)I doubt he got millions for being an actor in it. A lot of actors do very small parts just to be a part of something, often with little financial involvement.
I suspect that his financial gain from this was because he actually produced the film and invested in it to get it made.
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)Snatch, 12 Monkeys, and Fight Club.
Thought he did a good job in a River Runs Through It, Seven, and the Oceans' series.
Good-looking, indeed. I remember sitting through the credits of "Thelma and Louise" way back when to see who he was -- definitely made an impression!
Wolf Frankula
(3,673 posts)Goes the gamut from smug to smarmy.
Wolf
clarice
(5,504 posts)kairos12
(13,252 posts)clarice
(5,504 posts)michaljohnson
(12 posts)No not at all i don't think so that Brad Pitt is the Worst Actor ever. William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American Actor as well as Producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as Three Academy Award Nominations in Acting Categories as well as received. So how can you say that Brad Pitt is the Worst Actor ever in his Career.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)just seen 12 Years and he stuck out as almost ruining the film.
He, just like Julia Roberts, had good performances early on - Thelma and Louise, Pretty Woman, Mystic Pizza - and they are gorgeous. So, the producers thought they were good enough to push on the public for many years after. The public supported them because they were the "it" people. But the acting got worse and worse.
My main problem with Pitt is his overwhelming inability to take on an accent - He is ridiculously bad at it. Think they should just let him talk in his own accent - however anachronistic it is - would be better to explain that than to have him make a fool of himself.
BTW - no one who isn't from Boston should EVER fake a Boston accent.
ChazInAz
(2,786 posts)The guy's type cast, and can absolutely shine in the right role. "Cool World" is one. My favorites are "Inglorious Basterds" and that idiotic jock in "Burn After Reading". Of course, the latter was an ensemble piece with Dick Jenkins and George Clooney in the mix, so everyone looked good.
One of the worst current stars is Val Kilmer. I was an extra in "Tombstone", and remember his behavior towards anyone who wasn't Val Kilmer.
ImaPolitico
(150 posts)One of his best movies was (and my fav.) `` "A River Runs Though It," directed by Robert Redford. Have to say, Pitt was pretty good in this movie.
joshrichiiji
(7 posts)He is a good actor
trof
(54,273 posts)Ahnold?
Stallone?
Come on.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,778 posts)but I can't say that he is the "worst actor ever" either.
aikoaiko
(34,202 posts)Rusty Ryan kind of stuck with him thereafter as an actor.
He definitely rose up for certain moments in different films.